Nether Core Mod 1.10.2, 1.9.4, 1.9 aims at making the Nether a more fun and interesting place so that you might actually want to setup a base there.

Nether Ore

Spawns Vanilla ores in the nether, the quantity and frequency is loosely based on the standard Vanilla values.

Compressed Netherrack

Take that massive amount of Netherrack and compress it up to 8x. Once you get 8x, you can smelt it into a Nether Star. Beware though, 8x Netherrack is roughly 43 million Netherrack.

Crafting:

Smelting:

Nether Stone

Everyone loves more blocks, decorate all the things with multiple variations of all types of blocks (slabs, fence, stairs, bricks, etc…)

Nether Rod

Based on the 1.9 Ender Rods. Crafted with a Blaze Rod on top of a Nether Brick. This Rod acts as a light with the same luminosity as Glowstone.

Soul Glass

Made by smelting Soul Sand, Soul Glass will not allow light to pass through its frame-less glass body. However, looking closely will reveal the souls trapped within.

Nether Spore / Nether Growth

This item, when crafted, can be applied to Netherrack in the Nether. This will slowly spread to nearby blocks occasionally setting things on fire.

Nether Growth (seen above) prevents mob spawns. This is the first step to terraforming the Nether into a habitable zone, just be careful, Nether Growth has some unknown side effects.

Nether Coal

A new fuel that lasts twice as long as normal Coal when burned. However, this coal isn’t super easy to get. Nether Coal Ore is created when Nether Growth naturally spreads to a Coal Ore from the Nether. Block variant added for convenience.

Nether Furnace

This furnace requires no fuel, however will use the heat around it to burn items.

Crafting Recipe:

8x Nether Cobblestone

1x Magma Cream

Each source or flowing lava on the sides of the furnace will increase the heat by a factor of 1.

When placed in the Nether, heat is additionally increased by a factor of 1.

With a single heat source, the furnace will passively smelt items at 25% the speed of a standard fuel based furnace.

With all sides touching lava, while placed in the Nether, the furnace will passively smelt items at 125% the speed of a standard fuel based furnace.

If placed in any non-hell dimension, without any lava, the furnace will not function.

You can insert items into the top of the Nether Furnace, and extract them from the bottom only.